physiotherapy and physical therapy

Has the time come to change the term for physical therapy within the UK , Canada and Australia to physical therapy? In using the term physiotherapy does it not come with a heap of baggage and assunmptions which are no longer valid or are totally out of date? The term physiotherapy was adopted within the days of the British empire, and has many unspoken values and assumption associated with it. It would be interesting to find out what images the general public get when they hear the term "physiotherapy".

physiotherapy blogs

Here in really cool physio blog I want to highlight the fact that theres' a lack of good physio blogs and there's no fun material for allied health professionals. Why is it all so serious?

physiotherapy forums

It's really interesting looking out for physiotherapy forums. I found one today which seems to have an international membership. For CSP members there is iCSP but at times it seems as if it runs out of posts. I'm looking out for a site that is controversial but have not found one yet. Maybe when physios are in their work mode they're really boring?

National Say What You Think Day

It would be a cool idea if the NHS had a say what you think day where for just one day staff did not have to be polite with difficult patients, colleagues and managers. There is not shortage of days to promote various causes such as national back pain day and other dumb ideas. NHs staff morale would be improved at no cost to the Government if for just one day staff could stop pretending with all the time wasters, self centred and rude patients who take up too much time and who take staff away from helping those who can be most improved.

junk food

So there are plans to ban junk food adverts aimed at children. It's a pitty that there is not a wider considertation of children's long term well being such as ensuring they do not have to carry heavy school bags all day, making it safer to cycle in urban areas and encouraging more exercise.

where there's a will there's a way

It is interesting how some patients get better with minimal advice, and others can have intensive input but still fail to improve. This is especially true in the area of chronic conditions. The BBC ran an interesting documentary on February 19 about what they called "hypocondriacs" people with unfounded chronic anxiety about their health. The physiotherapy profession is regularly engaged in trying to help people with chronic health anxiety. The programme highlighted what many physiotherapists must find that for some patients expert input will significantly help people who really want to change but for those who lack the motivation and who gain some emotional reward from their problems no amount of help will change them.

really cool? no i'm SAD

no i don't fel really cool. I always find winter a bad time of year 'cus i have S.A.D. in case you don't know what SAD is it's proper name is seasonal affective disorder. sounds a load of trash doesn't it? but it ain't. this year i've fought back by takng vitamins and my personal theory is that it come from a vitamin lack. felty juch better. the other thing is that this time of years it's easy to pick up viruses and then think it's part of an ailment.

physiotherapy crisis?

Is there a crisis in UK physiotherapy? I think so. There's a serious problem with the number of new graduates qualifying when there's nearly no new physiotherapist posts in the whole of the UK. I think there is the serious possibility that the next thing we will see is the closure of university training departments because in the short to medium term there will be no growth in the number of new jobs available. The other thing to look out for is the downward pressure on job gradings. Because of the surplus in potential candidates for jobs and the prevailing crisis in finances there will be a growing tendancy to lower the grade of jobs to make financial savings and take advantage of the surplus in the labor market. There is a fundamental problem with job grading levels because there is no objective measure of the grade a given job should be. Ultimately the grading given is what an employer was willing to pay. Knowledge and Skills Framework reveals how arbitrary the grading system is and how it isopen to wide local interpretations. The final thing we might see is the gradual abolition of the rotational post. And just one question to finish with. If a band 5 physiotherapist is non-rotational, in a post for a number of years, supported with good post graduate training, how will their level of skills and clinical outcomes be different to someone doing the same post for the same time at a higher grade?

another day

i wonder if there's any of you out there who look at other health professional blogs. there does not see to be very many.maybe i'm missing them.good uk. one is http://nhsblogdoc.com (not suer if i've got it all, name is correct maybe missing a bit)

probably won't keep up daily entries when i get this going properly, is quality better than quantity?

Cool physiotherapist?

no i'm not a really cool physio but i was looking for an unused name. there seems to be a shortageof physiotherapy blogs. i've found a few really boring ones on websites but who wants to read a blog on someone's website? i'm new to all this blogging and i've got big plans for this blog. at this point in time this whole thing is rather sad because here i am typing in all this stuff without having a clue if there's anyone out there reading it, and at this point in time there's millions of people all round the world doing the same thing, all typing away hoping there's someone out there.

so why am i doing a blog? because i'm angry, because i've got something to say, because i've got something i think people might want to hear.most physiotherapy and physical therapy info on the web is safe and professional.nothing wrong with being safe and professional except that's all there is , there's nothing really questionning the status quo. there's a lack of free debate about the way we do things the way the profession works and worst of all for UK physiotherapists working in the NHS there's little debate about the crisis that is happening . maybe i'm sad and this blog should be called reallysadphysio but i care about all this and i'm angry that whilst NHS physios are facing the biggest crisis since the founding of the NHS protest about this seems rather half hearted. maybe everyone's just glad they still have a job. i suppose that's something to be thankful for given the fact that 80% of last years graduates don't have jobs.but to me that seems wrong. we owe it to the profession to the future generations of physios and the future of physiotherapy in the NHS to start shouting far louder and clearer than at the moment.

so if i'm not actually amongst the millions of bloggers out there doing blogs that no one reads let me know.

first blog

this is the first entry for reallycoolphysio to test out the site and test the software. so what's it all about? i've got a lot to say but not really much to say about myself as you might gather if you read my lack of profile. if you're thinking this is goin to be some personal agony column then go somewhere else. this is about the physical therapy / physiotherapy as a profession. this is the unofficial view.